Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hmm, I love the definitions you put out. Gave me much to consider. I believe I am polytheistic. I believe in the possibility of the existance of many gods and respect each of them equally, but haven't really felt the right pull yet, I don't think. Then again, sometimes I miss signs even when they whack me in the face. I also believe that the gods (or maybe spirits) are apart of everything natural. That everything living has a soul and is sentient.

Ah... crap.

Taking into consideration the philosophical ban on worship and the refusal of my path to recognize deity status in any higher being due to that...

...I have no clue which of the -theism based words apply. Atheism? Nontheism? Soft Polytheism (due to the Aspects?)

x_x

It might be because it's 1:16am, but I'm confused by this sentence. x_x

Okies, I'm more awake now.

So I'd basically need to see where the prohibitions go to, that fine fuzzy line between worship and respect and the line between deification and acknowledgment of power and then figure out whether that would make me a form of polytheist, a form of atheist or a form of nontheist.

Or even something brand new x_x

Well I often use the word deity to mean a more evolved being whom others worship or believe is worthy or deserving of worship.

So my attempts to make communication easier means that deities would "exist" to me. Just in a slightly different context and not worshiped or praised.

Which just makes things more confusing for me in the end x_x

Well, my path perceives them as more evolved beings that people wrongfully worship or wrongfully regard as deserving of worship (because of how I view worship).

So it's iffy. Or maybe it isn't and I'm just confusing myself.

I'm pretty sure you have monolatry and henotheism switched around, Tea.

My understanding is that monolatry is when all gods are facets of one overarching "hidden" deity. This is the Egyptian application, or at least the Egyptological misunderstanding until Hornung wrote "Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt" to show how they were henotheistic in that at the time of worship, the subject of the cult in question viewed that god as the highest and greatest of all the gods, while not denying that other gods existed and may be worthy of worship as well. The deity's status was then lowered again to be the most important of that cult, but other deities were worshiped too, as was clear from the many different shrines to other deities existing within a specific cult's temple. The Reversion Offering Formula as well attested to the importance of other gods in that the offerings first made to the cult subject deity was then reverted to offer to other Netjeru residing in the temple, then before images of deceased Pharaohs, then to statues or images of other deceased people who were honored by having their image reside in the temple, and finally the food was dispersed to the priests and their dependents of that temple.

Do you have an online source you can point me to that would break it down including etymology? This would mean that the way KO defines monolatry is incorrect.